[plug] problem booting...

Craig Ringer craig at postnewspapers.com.au
Fri Jan 30 19:30:00 WST 2004


On Fri, 2004-01-30 at 19:08, David & Lisa Buddrige wrote:

> Entry 'etc' in / (2) has deleted/unused inode 98497.  Clear<y>?
> 
> I'm guessing I don't want to delete the /etc inode.  any suggestions on how
> to fix this?  Does clearing it fix the problem or just permanently delete
> it?

I strongly suspect, but don't know for sure, that 'clear' will in fact
delete the /etc inode. This is probably bad ;-)

Unfortunately, if your FS is this corrupt your chances of recovering a
fully working system are rather poor anyway. I /suspect/ - but someone
more used to working with ext[23] should confirm - that anything under
/etc will probably appear in /lost+found, possibly in a disorganised
mess without their original filenames or permissions.

In this situation I'd be inclined to archive the corrupt filesystem to
CD/tape/disk/whatever and keep that for a while - just in case - then
format the system and reinstall. It'd also be wise to run some hardware
diagnostic and thrashing tools before going ahead and reinstalling.

Once you've backed up everything you think you can recover, I suggest
some/all of these as useful tests:
	- running badblocks in destructive read/write mode, repeately
	- using bonnie++ to thrash the disk mechanism - keep an eye out
		for any I/O errors, DMA errors, etc.
	- using `smartctl -a` to query the disk and see if it reports
		any odd info. If you don't understand the output, post
		a copy here - it's a bit of a black art to interpret at
		times.
	- using smartctl to run disk self-tests
	- using the vendor disk tools to test your disks
	- using memtest86 to test your memory, plus CPU and cache to 
		a lesser extent
	- making sure all your cooling fans etc are working fine, and
		your memory is properly seated and your ATA cables
		are properly plugged in. Swapping ATA cables might not
		be a bad idea if you have a known-good spare; that
		extra-hard-to-trace hardware issue I had with a PPro
		a few months back turned out to be a bad ATA cable.
--
Craig Ringer




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